Turkey Today: A Nation Divided Over Islam's Revival

" TURKEY TODAY, A NATION DIVIDED OVER ISLAM'S REVIVAL "At last a reference work on Europe's newest candidate.Whoever has had the opportunity of sailing along the Dardanelles, and been faced with the splendor of Istanbul, will never forget that flood of golden fire which, at sunset, engulfs the antique Turkish city, town of Constantine, the first Oriental Roman emperor. Any tourist currently believes that many unspoken records of the "Orient-Express " luxuries still linger in this accumulation of wealth and stench, a magic symbol of pré-Oriental cosmopolitism , word the ancient Greeks scholars used to describe an ideal giant city, " the big city " (polis) of " the universe " (kosmos).This tourist might well be right, Marvine Howe suggests implicitely in her new book '" Turkey Today, A Nation Divided over Islam's Revival ". This former New York Times foreign correspondant, among many other hard and risky assignments, has been bureau chief in Ankara for three years and returned many times since. She knows every corner of Turkish domestic and foreign intricacies, as well as every aspect of this country's religious and cultural life.. For Marvine Howe " Istanbul is stilll a great multicultural meeting place " but, " increasingly divided in two worlds " For her it is not the case of " a classic schism between East and West, rich and poor, or traditional and progressive. It is not even the kind of religious factionalism that wracks other countries, because 98 percent of Turkey's 65 million inhabitants are Muslim. ".The author emphasizes that it is " more and more evident " that " the great divide is to be seen between two concepts of life " in this old and in the same time, new country.. On one hand " a secular lifestyle with its inherent freedoms an insecurities " and on the other hand " a religious way with its certainties and strict controls ".Marvine Howe has undertaken a difficult task. She has succeeded in being able to explain in detail the whole Turkish problem, although very clearly, within 300 densely printed pages. Thanks to this book, anybody can learn what is Turkey today, a far away country, generaly ignored by most of people ; a country scrutinized by strategists in the United States and Europe. This is a country famous because of its Romans ruins in Ephesus, and because of Ataturk, a former officer who, in the roaring twenties chose to become chief of state, ousted the old religious hierarchy and pachas, forbade the use of the tradtional red hat " Fez " and replaced it by an ugly grey cap. It will be known that Turkey is not only a dreamland for middle class yachtmen who can rent enormous sailing ships for a handful of dollars.To write about such a country, so madly complicated, so unpredictable, was not an easy weekend pastetime. If we look behind the author, we will find also, a hard working journalist, scrupulously careful, tough, tireless when she starts looking for

marvine howe's "turkey today" is different from any other books written on turkey by journalists: she has penetrated into the soul of turkey and turkih people. this schizophrenic nation could not have been put under the magnifying glass any better than this and on top of it all she has not been biased for once in her book which is the usual tendency of foreign journalists writing on turkey.marvine hove's book is a must for anyone who is interested in turkey or not but would like to know & planning to visit Turkey. it is apart from being an introduction to "turkey today" socio-politically it has a fair amount of well described, accurate information on ancient history of turkey thus its " must visit" sites. the way howe travels between the past and present reflects her crystal brilliance and deep knowledge & wisdom about the country and its people and is a proof that she did not just work as a journalist but she let herself "be" and "lived" Turkey: this makes her book different than other's and a must.